Cacique (chef)

A cacique, sometime spelled as cazique ( kaˈsike; kɐˈsikɨ, kaˈsiki; feminine form: cacica) was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, who were the indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles at the time of European contact with those places. The term is a Spanish transliteration of the Taíno word kasike. Cacique was initially translated as "king" or "prince" for the Spanish. In the colonial era the conquistadors and the administrators who followed them used the word generically to refer to any leader of practically any indigenous group they encountered in the Western Hemisphere. In Hispanic and Lusophone countries, the term has also come to mean a political boss, similar to a caudillo, exercising power in a system of caciquismo. The Taíno word kasike descends from the Taíno word kassiquan, which means "to keep house". In 1555 the word first entered the English language, defined as "prince". In Taíno culture, the kasike rank was hereditary and sometimes established through democratic means. As the Taínos were mostly a peaceable culture the kasike's importance in the tribe was determined by the size of his clan rather than his skills in warfare. The Taíno kasikes also enjoyed several privileges that marked them as the elite class of Taíno society: they lived in a larger rectangular hut in the center of the village, rather than the peripheral circular huts of other villagers, and they had reserved places from which to view the areytos (ceremonial dances) and ceremonial ball game. Most importantly, the kasike's word was law and they exercised this power to oversee a sophisticated government, finely involved with all aspects of social existence. The Spanish transliterated kasike and used the term (cacique) to refer to the local leader of essentially any indigenous group in Spanish America. Caribbean caciques who did not initially oppose the Spanish became middlemen, serving as the interface between their communities and the Spanish. Their cooperation was frequently provisional.